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We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Case of Yisrael Asher Valis

Case of Yisrael Asher Valis

(AKA: Yisrael Valis, Yisrael A. Valis)

Mea She'arim, Jerusalem, Israel

Charged with abuse of a minor or helpless person, violence against a minor or helpless person causing palpable injury, and violence against a minor or helpless person causing severe injury. Two of the three charges carry a maximum sentence of nine years in jail.

The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office on Sunday filed an indictment against a 20-year-old father, on the day a medical team at Hadassah-University Hospital, Ein Karem declared the baby, whom he had severely beaten, clinically dead.

The father was charged with abuse of a minor or helpless person, violence against a minor or helpless person causing palpable injury, and violence against a minor or helpless person causing severe injury. Two of the three charges carry a maximum sentence of nine years in jail.

The baby was brought to hospital on the night of April 2, suffering from internal bleeding and bleeding in the retinas of his eyes. Doctors found that the baby showed other signs of violence including teeth marks on his face.

During questioning by police, the father at first denied that he had deliberately hurt the infant. He said he had tried to calm him down and that the baby had slipped from his hands.

Afterwards, however, he admitted that he had bitten the baby in the face, pinched him in the neck and chest and slapped him because the baby's cries wouldn't let him sleep.

According to the charge sheet, the defendant had been upset with his baby because he believed the baby had a defect in his neck muscles. Dr. Ido Yatziv, who treated the baby, told The Jerusalem Post however that he saw no sign of such a defect.

On the night the baby lost consciousness, the father allegedly slapped him and shook him violently. The baby slipped out of his hands and his head struck a wall.

Dr. Yatziv told the Post that, normally, if a patient is declared brain dead and the family is not opposed, the patient is taken off life support. In this case, the family, which is haredi, opposed. He predicted that the baby would die despite life support between "a few hours and a few days."

A three-month-old baby, hospitalized a week ago at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, was pronounced clinically dead Sunday morning. A medical committee is presently debating whether to take the baby off life support, which the family opposes.

The father was indicted Sunday at the Jerusalem District Court on two counts of abuse and cause of serious injuries to his son. His remand was extended by 16 days.

The baby was hospitalized in serious condition, with brain hemorrhaging, edema, signs of violence and bites on his body. At first when interrogated by police, the father denied he intended to harm his son. He claimed the baby fell from his arms while he was trying to calm him down and put him to bed.

During his second questioning, the father admitted he slammed the baby against a wall and had previously attacked him numerous times, because he "wouldn't let him sleep." He said he would beat his son with his fists, slap him and bite him on the neck.

"When we visited the baby we saw he had bite marks on his neck and a black eye. He had many blue marks on his body, matching the father's descriptions of the violence", said Aliza Aroch, head of the Jerusalem Police Family Violence Team. The father said one of the reasons for his violence was disgust he felt toward his son due to a physical defect in the child's neck muscles.

(IsraelNN.com) Rabbi Yitzchak Weiss of the Eida Hareidit Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem has ordered the funeral of an infant delayed until his father is released from prison by police.

The three month infant died as a result of physical abuse. Police are holding the 19-year-old father as the chief suspect in the case. Eida Hareidit officials maintain police forced an untrue confession from the father, a community member.

People close to Rabbi Weiss released a statement to the media, "He is going to turn over the nation to ensure the father is released before the holiday," referring to the Wednesday start of Passover.

By Yair Ettinger and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service

Haaretz - April 10, 2006

Police in Jerusalem prepared for possible violent protests Monday, over their refusal to release a young ultra-Orthodox man charged with the murder of his three-month-old baby boy.

The baby, who was admitted last week to hospital in Jerusalem, died Monday, a day after he was pronounced clinically dead, the apparent victim of severe abuse at the hands of his 19-year-old father, Yisrael Valls.

Members of the ultra-Orthodox community have demanded Valls' release and threatened riots if he is kept in custody, despite the fact that he admitted to beating the child.

The ultra-Orthodox "Kol Hai" radio station quoted sources as saying that "Jerusalem would burn," if Valls was not released Monday evening.

The baby was hospitalized at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, in serious condition, with brain hemorrhaging, edema, signs of violence and bites on his body. The baby's body will not undergo an autopsy.

At first when interrogated by police, Valls denied he intended to harm his son. He claimed the baby fell from his arms while he was trying to calm him down and put him to bed.

Valls was initially indicted at Jerusalem District Court on two counts of abuse and cause of serious injuries to his son, and later charged with murder.

Police believe they have sufficient to convict the father and also want to change the charges in light of the baby's death. They will also request the court to allow publishing the father's name.

During his second questioning, the father admitted he slammed the baby against a wall and had previously attacked him numerous times, because he "wouldn't let him sleep." He said he would beat his son with his fists, slap him and bite him on the neck.

"When we visited the baby we saw he had bite marks on his neck and a black eye. He had many blue marks on his body, matching the father's descriptions of the violence," said Aliza Aroch, head of the Jerusalem Police Family Violence Team. The father said one of the reasons for his violence was disgust he felt toward his son due to a physical defect in the child's neck muscles.

The death of a three-month-old baby on Monday after allegedly being beaten by his 20-year-old yeshiva student father led a leading haredi rabbi to accuse the police and the justice authorities of concocting a Pessah eve blood libel.

Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, halachic authority and spiritual leader for Jerusalem's virulently anti-Zionist Eda Haredit community, said the indictment of the yeshiva student was "identical to the blood libels concocted by the evil Europeans against Jews before Pessah."

Police recommended that the state press manslaughter charges against Yisrael Asher Valis of Mea She'arim after suspecting that he had savagely attacked his infant son.

According to the police, Valis allegedly hurled the baby against the wall. He is also suspected of repeatedly biting, beating, pinching and punching the infant. Police sources said a birth defect affecting the infant's neck muscles sparked the antagonism.

Hadassah-University Hospital pediatrician Dr. Ido Yatziv, who treated the infant, said the father claimed the baby had fallen. "The mother backed up his story that the baby had fallen," he said. "But they both knew I didn't believe it."

The infant was unconscious upon arrival, with hemorrhaging from the left side of his face and head and teeth marks on his face.

Yatziv said the infant's family claimed the media "went wild" about the story and spread a "blood libel" against them because they are members of the Eda Haredit community.

Hadassah doctors said that, although the infant was clinically brain dead, they kept him attached to a life support machine until the infant's heart stopped beating because the haredi family demanded it.

"Many of these families do not accept the concept of brain death," said Yatziv. "In recent years, we have tried not to argue with families who refuse to have the respirator disconnected."

He said he felt some haredi couples who marry young are unprepared for the demands of parenthood and should be given lessons in coping with babies and family life.

However, Weiss's followers rejected the doctor's account.

"Valis says the baby fell from his arms and Rabbi Weiss believes him," said Shmuel Popenheim, editor-in-chief of Ha'edah, the Eda Haredit's weekly. "There are people who will purposely lie to disparage us."

Mordechai Minzberg, an Eda Haredit activist, said that Weiss' accusation was very rare. "If it weren't Pessah eve, all the streets adjacent to Mea She'arim would be blocked and there would be demonstrations," he said.

Yisrael Valis had just finished saying kaddish over the body of his three-month-old son before the funeral Monday evening in Jerusalem when his wife cried out to him, "You didn't do anything, I know that. And you didn't do anything to me. They can connect me to a lie-detector, it's the truth."

Since Valis himself admitted to police investigators that he had brutalized his baby son and battered his wife on several occasions, the protestations of his innocence would seem to be the symptomatic denial of a victim of severe domestic violence, eager like other women in her situation to take the blame upon herself. But in this case, the denial isn't only the bereaved mother's; it's the denial of an entire community.

Perhaps the most tragic detail of Yitzhak Shmuel's death is the fact that, if his condition hadn't been so critical that his father had to call for an ambulance when the infant lost consciousness, the alleged abuse would have continued, perhaps for many years, without police or social services ever having an inkling of what was going on.

The Eda Haredit sect of the haredi community in Jerusalem are fanatical about having no contact with the heretical Zionist state; they don't even accept handouts from the state budget. It goes without saying that any wrongdoing of any kind is swept out of sight and dealt with within the circle.

In this case it was the health authorities who notified the police that there was a suspected case of parental violence, but Valis's speedy acceptance of blame didn't prevent his family and other members of the Eda, including Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, head of its Rabbinical Court, from closing ranks and claiming that the charges were a "blood libel" aimed at besmirching the entire community. The threats of "setting Jerusalem ablaze" if Valis is not released is a stark reminder of the hundreds and perhaps thousands of cases of domestic violence and sexual molestation going on behind closed doors that will never be reported or treated professionally.

Granted, the Eda Haredit is a more isolated sect in the haredi world and other haredi communities are admitting, at least privately, that they have a problem with domestic violence and have begun opening up to professional help - but, even there, it is a slow and often reluctant process. The tendency to "close things up inside" is still very strong and, when it can be done without involving the police or other authorities, that will always be the preferred method.

A representative of one of the most powerful hassidic leaders in the country is currently negotiating a deal with the family of one of the hassidim, who sexually molested at least two of the pupils in a school belonging to the hassidic sect. The deal is expected to include a promise not to go to the police.

Another representative of the same leader was a member of the UTJ negotiating team that yesterday demanded at the coalition talks that, in the next state budget, all money going to fund haredi education be put aboveboard as an official part of the budget. Perhaps if haredi leaders put more effort into bringing to light their communities' hidden problems than they do in publishing their financial demands, they might go some way in preventing the next death.

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Survivors ARE Heroes!

The Awareness Center believes ALL survivors of sex crimes should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war.

Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures.

For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!